« previous | TPM CAFÉ READER POSTS HOME | next »
Primary is Hijacked from Hillary Clinton
A couple of decades ago, David Dinkins, a soft spoken, black intellectual ran for Mayor of NYC.
His campaign had a few similarities to Obama's.
The mantra went that Dinkins was such an outstanding candidate, that he would only not be elected for one reason: because white NYC was racist.
Everyone felt honor bound to give NYC its first black Mayor.
Even people who weren't that excited about Dinkins went along.
To cut to the chase, Dinkins won the election. It turned out he was terrible. In fact, he was the worst Mayor of NYC that anyone could remember.
Early-on the democratic blogs were hijacked by Obama operatives. Clinton supporters were either harassed off, kicked off, or threatened with being "outed" if they did not leave.
I know one blog host who did not comply. He has been threatened that "he would never again be accepted by the progressive community" if he stayed with Clinton.
The competition was silenced, the blogs became one solid smear job on Hillary Clinton. Influencing young people, and giving the media the illusion that there was one solid front for Obama.
Without a doubt this kind of thing is going on with delegates. And super delegates. They are falling like European countries to Hitler.
The race card is working. Winning means nothing now. Because the states Hillary wins are "racist." All of West Virginia is racist. All of Kentucky is racist. Any state, talk show host, news show or blog is racist if they do not fall into line and say that Obama is the nominee.
Our most progressive economist points out that Obama's health proposal is right wing, and cannot possibly pass. His economic proposal is far to the right of Hillary Clinton's.
He just told Kentucky that he supports "clean" coal, even though environmentalists are dead against it - because it isn't clean.
These small details don't resonate with the news or progressive press, who are telling us Obama won. Even though Hillary Clinton won 2 out of the last 3 elections, and is heading for 2 more victories.
A Saturday Night Live skit of Clinton is being played over and over - they way they aired Howard Dean's yell in '04.
The media is telling us who our candidate is. What delegate will dare sacrifice his or her career bucking the in-formidable media. Doing that would most certainly bring on the accusation of being "racist."
My main worry is when will the intimidation stop?
At any rate, in the unlikely event that Obama wins the GE, let's hope he is a little better president than David Dinkins was Mayor.
Comments (24)
Ah yes, the old hijacking ploy of winning.
May 12, 2008 10:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nothing like a good Hitler comparison to liven up a post.
May 12, 2008 10:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's a lot of truth to what you are saying. It's been extremely frustrating, and reading the blogs has made it even more so.
My only hope now is that Hillary gets on the ticket. Otherwise I expect to lose in November. But I'm not confident that Obama will pick her. There's his arrogance, and then there's the free ride he'd gotten for so long. Plus the way he twice silenced the Democrats over the Jeremiah Wright flap. He may honestly believe that he is charmed and will be able to pull it all together without her.
May 12, 2008 10:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Otto, you are full of it. In my definition of arrogance, I'm not wasting it on Obama, I have a better candidate. Hillary has made it very difficult and next to impossible for Obama to put her on the ticket if he wins the nomination. He could never trust her.
May 13, 2008 6:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
The irony here of course is that your complaint about accusations of racism are framed by the racist implications of your analogy with Dinkins. "Is there any point in hoping that this black guy will be any better than that black guy?"
West Virginia and Kentucky don't matter finally because the delegates they can provide to Clinton aren't enough to overtake him in the delegate count. You set up the straw man of dismissals of the states as entirely racist to obscure that simple and race-neutral fact.
And finally you blame the media for finally recognizing what has been apparent for some time: the fact that Clinton can't catch Obama in pledged delegates. And then also excoriate superdelegates for exercising their judgment to pick a candidate when that's the only premise Clinton has had for staying the race this long.
Oh, and Clinton also supports "clean coal."
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/energy/
May 12, 2008 10:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
David Dinkins is black. Obama is black. Therefore, Obama=Dinkins.
You mentioned 'similarities' between their campaigns, but then only mention that people felt 'honor bound' to elect him because he was black.
I lived in NYC through most of the 80's and still spent a lot of time there in the 90's, and you don't know what the hell you're talking about :)
Oh - it might interest you to know that at least in 2008, Dinkins was a prominent Hillary supporter. But that's only the tip of an iceberg of NYC politics that you know nothing about.
May 12, 2008 10:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Doh. I don't think you got it.
Better read it again.
It isn't that complicated:
Dinkins won by guilt tripping the population
that they were racist if they did not vote for him.
Obama is doing the same.
Or am I imagining I see the word "racist"
10,000 a day in the blogs.
OK? Understand now?
May 12, 2008 10:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Name one moment.
The funniest thing about your post is that the only trustworthy claim of being thrown off a site was by someone who corrected inaccuracies on MyDD, an exclusively pro-Clinton site (he told us about it on another forum, and thereafter faded as our resident stupid-spotter about MyDD).
May 12, 2008 11:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excuse me. The Clinton supporters who were ousted
by dKos regrouped at Mydd.
The dKos gang herded over to Mydd, and continued
the harassment. At this point, they have nearly succeeded
in taking over again.
The one progressive HRC blog with high level of writing
has succeeded in not being flooded out by Obama
zealots because it weeds most of them out.
Sad they have to do this, but Obamazoids have declared
war, and are only out to annihilate.
As the comments in this post show.
No interest in discussion. Only blind, dumb
take-over. For what they haven't a clue.
May 13, 2008 12:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
May 12, 2008 11:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, Obama attracted millions of new voters who believe he is a once in a lifetime political leader. His appeal has nothing to do with race, or being targeted by the Clinton version of the GOP swift boat campaign to come, i.e., Obama = Hamas Endorsed, Muslim, who agrees with Farakhan and Wright's most extreme positions, and is going to make race the central issue of the next administration, yadda yadda yadda, vote for the old white guy who isn't scared to do what's necessary to protect America against scary Muslim people and their allies (which include Obama). It is an offensive, racist, ethnically bigoted strategy which assumes that the average guy is an idiot who believes that kind of complete crap. It's exactly what people are rejecting this year, and once Hillary and her version of this crap falls by the wayside, Obama will take this issue to Mccain and the GOP and score a huge victory with the help of a public that is starving for what the type of leadership he offers. Just reading this post convinces me that this is the year that insulting the intelligence of the people blows up in the face of the VRWC.
May 12, 2008 11:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Obama was playing the race card to win, why was nothing said about Edwards while he was in the race (or after, for that matter)?
Could it be that Edwards didn't make racist statements?
May 12, 2008 11:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Game, set, match. Winner, Scalfin.
May 12, 2008 11:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
if the race had narrowed to Edwards and Obama,
Obama operatives would have seen to it that
Edwards came off racially biased.
May 13, 2008 12:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Dinkins was elected Mayor only because of his race? So it had nothing to do with his Mathematics degree, Law Degree and having served as a US Marine in WWII? None of that qualified him for the post, I guess.
Obama fans, I'm all for playing nice with Clinton fans, and unifying the party, but these Slumlord posts are way over the line. Pure excrement.
May 13, 2008 12:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
why was he booted out after 1 term?
because he sucked.
May 13, 2008 12:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
No president has done more for black interests
than Bill Clinton.
A campaign that tries to paint the Clinton racist
loses my respect, and people's respect who
know better.
My neighbor said if he passed Obama on the street
he would spit in his face.
May 13, 2008 12:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
You know, no matter how much I expect this kind of nonsense, it still enrages me.
The NYT, I think had a similar article on Deval Patrick and seemed to perform the same kind of prophetizing that "slumlord" is doing here.
i.e. Take a random black politician, create some kind of "similarity" to Obama no matter how tenuous, throw in a Hitler or Stalin metaphor. Then hit the conclusion: Obama's presidency is gonna suck because XYZ Black Politician's tenure sucked. So on that basis alone, don't vote for him.
If we used the same arguments on the "past suckage" of the tenure of random white politicians nobody will vote anymore.
Listen, let the man first win the presidency, first. There will be plenty of times to throw stones at him on the basis of his actions later.
May 13, 2008 12:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Give up on the race thing, please. Maybe, just maybe, Obama has run a better campaign than Clinton. His message was consistent, hers was not. He was prepared to go the distance, she was not. He invigorated the party with new voters and donors, she was late and played catch up. Give the man his due. He is beating the odds and beating the Clinton brand. That wasn't easy. If he turns out to be a lousy POTUS, so be it. He wouldn't be the first. Who's to say HC would turn out to be better? The times make the man (or woman) or vice versa? No matter -- there's a lot of work to do and the first order of business is to unite and get Dems back in play to try and make at least a polyester purse out of the sow's ear inherited from Bush. Can't we just agree on that and leave race out of it? We need to rise above this primary and move on to deal with serious and important issues that affect all of us now and for years to come. If you pray, pray for whoever the nominee is and let's get this country moving in a better direction.
May 13, 2008 12:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
A great post, but deaf ears, my friend. The bile ruins the ear drums.
May 13, 2008 1:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
You guys got to get your talking points straight. Gotalife is attacking Obama from the RIGHT.
May 13, 2008 1:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
First, studies have shown that white Americans are poor detectors of slyly played racism. It's not your fault. You don't have to struggle against it daily. Plus, as a general rule, we African Americans don't wantonly play "the race card" because it all to often backfires. Unless the racism is overt, you're better off to keep the discussion on other issues. So, this whole argument that the Obama campaign played the race card against the Clintons is specious.
David Dinkins won in part because Giulliani ran a race-baiting campaign. His promises about "law and order" only encouraged the racism we see now from the NYPD.
And I'm not a regular at Daily-Kos. But from what I understand, no one was "ousted." Clinton-supporters just didn't like reactions to their blogs. It's not like anyone's proHillary blog was taken down.
Lastly, racism is more than just "hate." For example, the notion that African Americans are somehow indebted to the Clintons, despite the policies Clinton enacted that hurt the black community, is paternalistic racism. It's not that the whites in this case hate blacks, but that they don't think blacks can't take care of themselves.
May 13, 2008 2:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Your post makes me want to vomit. Barack Obama has never NOT EVEN ONCE tried to play the race card in this election. I, however, can name a dozen times when Hillary and Bill played their subtle race cards here and there to scare up their "hard working, white Americans". (Not MY quote by the way... it's HILLARY'S!)
And this bull crap about the Clintons doing so much for Black Americans makes me gag. If it wasn't for the African American community, the CLINTONS would be nowhere. Bill would have resigned in disgrace and we wouldn't have been stuck with the last 8 years od GWB.
On the FLIP side Hillary has spouted off about sexism and gender at every turn. Disgusting!
Clinton has no one to blame but herself for losing this race. She had the connections, the name, and the money.
However.. she didn't have a PLAN. Her campaign has been a disaster and she blew it. She blew Iowa. She blew South Carolina. She, for the most part, blew Super Tuesday. And the biggest mistake? She had no game plan for the 11 states/caucuses after Super Tuesday. Barack Obama didn;t force Hillary not to have a game plan. The media didn;t force Hillary not to have a game plan. Mark Penn, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton.... these are the reasons there was no game plan and why Hillary Clinton will never be President. They f*cked up. And when you can admit that like a clear thinking, logical person. Then I will bother reading your posts again. But as long as you keep pointing your finger at someone other than THE CLINTONS....for their demis the election cycle, I cannot take you seriously.
Oh and as for a VP slot... noc hance in HELL. The moment Hillary started saying McCain would make a better President in an effort to take down Obama... that pipe dream was over. She adds nothing to the ticket... and ruins his chances in places like IA, WI, VA, CO, NC, SC, GA, WA, and OR. He will pick a running mate to help him win PA and OH.... so we don't need her. And we don't want her. She is to machiavelian to have running around... and GOD FORBID we let Bill anywhere near the White House again. Our nation is just about done paying the dry cleaning bill for that massive DNA stain in the Oval Office. The cost of that dry cleaning bill? Bush's 8 years. NO THANKS!
May 13, 2008 9:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
CARING ADVICE FOR ALL CLINTON TROLLS:
Stop struggling against the death of the Clinton campaign. It used to be great fun, watching you struggle for life with her, but now its just sad.
You're only driving yourselves crazy, as is readily apparent from your posts.
You'd better start getting used to saying, President Barack Obama! Practice saying that twice daily, once after you wake up and once before bedtime, serves your mental health. Doing this now will help to ease your pain in November.
May 13, 2008 9:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Post a Comment